By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

The people stood on their front lawn, looked at their house, and they began to cry. Does that sound like a story about the devastation resulting from a flood or tornado? In this case, the story has a whole different focus, because these are tears of joy. Today we’ll learn about a rural Kansas entrepreneur who is using his painting skills to create happiness through improvement.

Todd Trzcinski is owner of SCR Professional Services which includes SCR Painting and SCR Tree Services. Todd grew up in Denver but he spent summers working with his grandfather back east. “He had a handyman service which included painting, and I gravitated to the painting part,” Todd said.

After a couple of years in corporate life, he went into painting professionally in Denver. “I painted all the way along the front range, mostly commercial painting,” Todd said.

Eventually, living in an urban area wore Todd down. “I got tired of the rat race,” Todd said. “I didn’t want to sit in traffic for 1-1/2 hours each day. Then one day two kids were shot on their way to school in my neighbourhood, and that was the last straw.”

Todd decided he would take a drive. He drove to a small town in eastern Colorado, picked up a local newspaper, and saw that there was a house for rent in Kanorado. Todd not only rented the house, he went to work for the farmer who was offering it.

This was truly a rural setting. The house was actually 14 miles north of the town of Kanorado, population 240 people. Now, that’s rural.

Then in 2011, life took a sudden turn. Todd was diagnosed with cancer. He went through treatment in Hays and ultimately the cancer was cured. “I’ve been in remission for six years,” Todd said. “It’s amazing. God is good.”

He moved to another place in the country. “Everybody told me, `This is your second chance,’” Todd said. “I started calling my place Second Chance Ranch.”

Meanwhile, Todd started a painting business again. He relocated to Goodland so as to be closer to his doctors. Using the initials from Second Chance Ranch, he called his new business SCR Painting.

While in the process of getting his business started, Todd got in touch with the regional business consultants from the Kansas Small Business Development Center. “That was one of the best things I ever did,” Todd said. “They helped me with bookkeeping, recordkeeping, and long-term planning.” The SBDC helped him develop his business plan which helped him get bank financing.

Today, SCR Painting is a full-service painting company, working on everything from commercial to industrial to residential and farm and ranch applications.

Todd is proud of his adopted hometown. “I’d like to give a great thanks to the city of Goodland,” Todd said. “They have welcomed me and my company with open arms.” Todd has done all kinds of projects around Goodland, including the challenging process of painting the interior dome of Max Jones Fieldhouse at the school. He’s especially proud of the work he did on the historic Ennis-Handy house in Goodland.

More recently, Todd has diversified his business. Because he had the hydraulic lifts which he uses for painting high places, he could use those for tree trimming as well. He took online classes to become a professional arborist and now offers SCR Tree Services.

Helping people is rewarding to Todd. Of his painting, he said, “My greatest satisfaction is how happy it makes people when they see the final product. I’ve worked on houses that had been in such bad shape that when the people saw how good it looked (when I was done), they stood on the front lawn and cried,” he said.

The people stood on their front lawn, looked at their house, and cried. But they weren’t weeping after a tornado, they were rejoicing about the new look of their home. We commend Todd Trzcinski of SCR Professional Services, SCR Painting, and SCR Tree Services for making a difference with his hard work and skills. Thank goodness for second chances.

The mission of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development is to enhance rural development by helping rural people help themselves. The Kansas Profile radio series and columns are produced with assistance from the K-State Research and Extension Department of Communications News Media Services unit. A photo of Ron Wilson is available at http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/news/sty/RonWilson.htm. Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at http://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful

knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.